As the US 2020 elections reached its conclusion, the media worked non-stop to deliver live results. Also, journalists who compute the polls do actually have a hard time computing manually.
With great numbers, come great responsibility, so do they say. Math is not for everyone.
A video posted by NowThis on Twitter regarding reporters computing the election results live on TV was noticed by Philippine journalists. As fellow journalists, they can relate to what US reporters were facing while doing math.
These reporters doing election results math basically sums up this entire week pic.twitter.com/yCIqmNSwXN
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) November 7, 2020
In the video, it showed that Bill Weir and Kyung Lah, both reporters for CNN, had difficulties producing the actual and current results of the election, manually, and on live TV. Both correspondents admitted that they don’t do well in math.
Philippine journalists can relate to the poor reporters of CNN. Since Journalism, Mass Communication, Broadcasting, or even Communication Arts do not delve deeper into Mathematics.
ABS-CBN journalist Anjo Bagaoisan tweeted, “Mag-masscom ka, walang math, they said. Salute pa rin sa mga correspondent na kailangan naka-stand-upper habang pumapasok ang mga updates!” showing that being a communication practitioner does not have as many math subjects as other courses.
"Mag-masscom ka, walang math," they said.
Salute pa rin sa mga correspondent na kailangan naka-stand-upper habang pumapasok ang mga updates! https://t.co/vd5a3UI7YL
— Anjo Bagaoisan (@anjo_bagaoisan) November 7, 2020
Even Jeff Canoy, a respected journalist of ABS-CBN admits that he is not good with computations. In his tweet, he said, “This is me when I’m asked to do long division and there’s no calculator,” referring to how the reporters were doing being asked to compute large figures.
This is me when I’m asked to do long division and there’s no calculator https://t.co/MJPtpKOwZa
— Jeff Canoy (@jeffcanoy) November 7, 2020
Even Pia Gutierrez can relate to these two reporters. The ABS-CBN Malacañang reporter said in her tweet, “Yung tatawa ka na sana kaso naalala mo ganyan ka rin kalala sa math #hahahuhu“, admitting that she also struggles with math.
Yung tatawa ka na sana kaso naalala mo ganyan ka rin kalala sa math #hahahuhu https://t.co/yTWMG6WpFm
— Pia Gutierrez (@pia_gutierrez) November 7, 2020
Washington Post reporter Regine Cabato relates her struggle as a journalist when mentally calculating numbers. She wrote, “As someone who struggles to mentally calculate change from big bills, this is truly my worst nightmare.”
As someone who struggles to mentally calculate change from big bills, this is truly my worst nightmare https://t.co/14HVJfl5G8
— Regine Cabato (@RegineCabato) November 7, 2020
Lucky for ABS-CBN’s reporters, they have Edson Guido who serves as the data analytics expert of the network.
The truth is, journalists specialize in Journalism. They are not experts on calculating large sums of numbers. Also, mentally solving on live TV while the results constantly change every minute could really get to a reporter’s head. The struggle to become a correspondent on election result day is a nightmare for every journalist. Moreover, some reporters during an election work for days and it can really add to the stress of delivering accurate updates regarding the result of the poll.
